Bee hive (or wasps)?

darrenheaphy · 03-07-2020 11:00am #1

Yesterday we had this amazing view of thousands of bees or wasps (too many moving to see properly) descend on our garden for about 20 minutes. Literally a mass cloud of them, was amazing.

But after 20 minutes a bunch of them look like they've created a hive, at least I think it's a hive, they're not doing much. Not sure if they're bees or wasps. Should I just leave them bee (ba-boom dish)

skinny90 · 03-07-2020 11:03am

Looks like a behive. Is there kids in the house. I’d only look to get rid of them if it was kids around being honest

magicbastarder · 03-07-2020 11:03am

that's a swarm; worth contacting the irish beekeepers association to see if they've someone local who can help:

https://swarms.ie/#story

gammygils · 03-07-2020 11:06am

It's a swarm of bees. Contact your local Beekeepers Association. They will need to be re hived. It's just a matter of cutting the branch and putting it in a box

darrenheaphy · 03-07-2020 11:11am

Thanks guys, looks like these https://species.biodiversityireland.ie/profile.php?taxonId=56218 methinks. We have kids alright and it's about 20 feet from a trampoline. What I left them alone? Would they just move on of their own accord?

magicbastarder · 03-07-2020 11:13am

probably honeybees, the one you linked to is a solitary bee.

they might try to set up locally if you don't have them moved, best to see if you can get someone to collect.

darrenheaphy · 03-07-2020 11:16am

magicbastarder wrote: »

probably honeybees, the one you linked to is a solitary bee.

they might try to set up locally if you don't have them moved, best to see if you can get someone to collect.

Thank you 👍That site you shared is great, I'll reach out to them

fryup · 03-07-2020 12:41pm

we need bees their number are on the decrease, please don't disturb them get in contact with your local bee keeper association asap

03-07-2020 12:50pm

fryup wrote: »

we need bees their number are on the decrease, please don't disturb them get in contact with your local bee keeper association asap

This is true to some degree but not for honey bees.
They are the only bee that is being looked after (for obvious reasons!) .
Thats what my beekeeping club tells me anyways.
Started keeping bees this year

magicbastarder · 03-07-2020 1:25pm

yep, the bees we're worried about are bumblebees and solitary bees, etc.; honeybees are not threatened.

Dr_Colossus · 03-07-2020 7:10pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

yep, the bees we're worried about are bumblebees and solitary bees, etc.; honeybees are not threatened.

Bumble bees are great, hard to beat sitting out on a nice day listening to them working. Quite a lot of them around our back yard but no where near the swarm as per the OP. Some great specimens that wouldn't be far of 3cm in length.

Hocus Focus · 07-07-2020 11:54am

darrenheaphy wrote: »

Yesterday we had this amazing view of thousands of bees or wasps (too many moving to see properly) descend on our garden for about 20 minutes. Literally a mass cloud of them, was amazing.

But after 20 minutes a bunch of them look like they've created a hive, at least I think it's a hive, they're not doing much. Not sure if they're bees or wasps. Should I just leave them bee (ba-boom dish)

Those are wasps. When the picture is zoomed their stripes can be seen clearly. They are resting in a clump on the tree while they send out scouts looking for a suitable spot to build a nest. They construct nests by chewing up decaying wood and producing a kind of 'papier-mache'which they build up in a complex and amazingly light structure in which tosite their hive.
While they are in this situation, make sure all your windows and doors are closed and check that they are not finding their way into your attic or outbuildings.

New Home · 07-07-2020 4:12pm

No, those are almost certainly bees (I'd be 99.99% positive). They're stripy, too, you know.

darrenheaphy · 08-07-2020 12:49pm

Yeah they were bees. That site that magicbastarder linked to, swarms.ie, is great. Within a few hours they found and organised a bee keeper to come collect them. I was expecting some dude appearing in a sparkling white hazmat-esque bee suit but it was all very casual :-D He wandered over, had a look, shock them off into a bucket (had gloves and a bee hat on), tipped bucket into the hive and let them settle there overnight before collecting the hive

NIMAN · 12-07-2020 4:55pm

And we have just noticed one as well in a tree in our front garden! Definitely wasn't there yesterday, must have arrived today at some point.

It's about 10ft from house so every one now inside waiting on help to arrive.

Can't see it clearly in the photo but lot of activity around it.

https://flic.kr/p/2jkAL98

Edit: so it was a honey bee swarm after all. Guys at swarms.ie were excellent and we had a local guy on site inside the hour to remove it.

We have a person who keeps bees a few hundred yards from us, and told it could possibly be part of their hive.

Learnt a lot chatting to the guy. Interesting creatures.

Bee hive (or wasps)?

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